"Are the doors locked, Judd?"
"Yes, and windows fastened," was the answer, given in the same low whisper. "I fortunately attended to that when I came over with the sloop."
The men reached the house and tried the kitchen door, but it withstood their most vigorous blows.
"I don't understand this," remarked the man with the lantern. "You could get in easily enough when I was over here early in the spring."
"Perhaps some one is living here now," suggested one of his companions, cautiously. "There is a wood-pile just beyond the corner."
"So there is," assented the first speaker, holding up his lantern so that its rays fell on the heap; "but if there is anyone here, I should have thought our knocking would have aroused him."
"It may be some fisherman who has not yet come home," remarked the third man.
"We'll try a window," said the leader; and he stepped to the one just at the left of the door.
"It is also fastened," he added, after trying it, "but it is with a stick just above it. Tom, hand me your cutter, and I'll take out a glass and remove the stick."
The man addressed opened his gripsack. For a moment the listening lads heard the ring of metallic tools striking together; then the searcher seemed to find what he wanted, and handed his companion the instrument he had asked for.